Lochinvar
by paladin1916
Summary: Matthew and Lavinia resolve things with Mary and Sir Richard.


A/N: Gentle Reader: as a M/M shipper the whole Lavinia and Sir Richard thing bothers me. I would prefer each M to be faithful to the other no matter what. With the appropriate changes in gender either of them could be the subject of the greatest country song ever: George Jones' "He stopped loving her today". Check it out on YouTube. But L and R have been introduced, so how to square that circle. This is my attempt. It is how I would end the last regular episode of Season 2.

Lochinvar

"Matthew! The wedding starts in twenty minutes. We can't be late". Isobel called up the stairs.

"Yes mother" Matthew replied dully. He did not want to attend the wedding of Mary and Sir Richard but he could not think of any plausible excuse to avoid doing so.

"I will go up and get him" Lavinia said to Isobel. "Why don't you head over to the church and we'll catch up to you."

Lavinia headed up the stairs. So it had come to this. She had hoped against hope that it would not. That all would be resolved. But neither Matthew nor Mary had done the right thing. So it came down to her. She was going to have to speak roughly to him. She would have to hurt him to help him, or at least she hoped it would help him.

She found him in his bedroom staring out the window. He was dressed in his scarlet tunic with all his ribbons and medals. Even with the long face he was gorgeous.

"Snap out of it! Let's get going! We can't arrive after the bride! Do you want me to drag you by the ear!" she barked at him. She grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the stairs.

He looked at her in amazement, his mouth open. He had never heard her speak like this. Where were the sweet dulcet tones of his intended?

She got him out of the house and walking towards the church. As she walked she said to him "It is obvious to me that you still love her. You don't really love me, you may be fond of me, but you don't love me."

He stopped walking and tried to protest but she kept walking. Over her shoulder she said "I have a lot to say and if you want to hear you had better keep walking, we must make it to the church before the wedding starts." When he caught up to her she continued "I have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say so don't interrupt and don't stop walking until I am finished."

" I am not who you think. My real name is not Lavinia, it doesn't matter what it is really." she walked for a few paces and then continued "I am a courtesan, a high class whore if you will. Keep walking! Me and Sir Richard go a long way back, he is one of my best clients. No questions! We don't have time!

Sir Richard was smitten with Mary the first time he saw her at one of the balls in London. He felt she would make the perfect society wife. And being the newspaper man that he is he had her thoroughly checked out. Which is how he found out about her Turkish lover" She turned to look at him and could see the puzzled look on his face "You know the one who died in her bed?" she could see the cogs turning in his mind until they stopped at the unsavoury conclusion.

She pushed on brutally "Yes, Sir Galahad you are engaged to a whore and in love with a slut. That's where all your honour and purity has got you. Keep up! Sir Richard also found out about you. That even though you and her had broken up you still loved each other. So he had to get rid of you. Be thankful that he is not so ruthless that he would have you meet an unfortunate accident. He knew that if he tried directly to turn Mary against you it would just force her back into your arms. So he had to get you to turn her against you. And that's where I came in."

She could see the Rolls coming down the road towards the church. "Walk faster! You might say that I have been professionally trained to make lonely men love me. It wasn't all that hard with you. Being on the rebound and all. I can be rough and randy or sweet and demure whatever the client wants. And you let sweet and demure Lavinia seduce you. And the rest is history as they say."

"Why are you telling me this now?" he cried out.

"Because I violated the first law of a whore: don't fall for a client. All that honour and purity - you really sincerely believed it and it started to rub off on me. I even started dreaming about being a Countess some day. But it's not me. You're very sweet but sweetheart, you live a very dull life here in Downton. I need more excitement in my life.

I don't trust Sir Richard as far as I can throw him so I'm getting out while the getting is good. There's a ship sailing out of Liverpool for New York in two days and I am going to be on it. But I couldn't just leave you two twisting in the wind." She could see the Rolls stopping in front of the church. "Faster! We don't have much time!" and she walked as fast as she could in her long dress. "I was praying that either you or Mary would come to your senses but you're too honourable and she's too proud, and you're both too stubborn so it was all up to me. Yesterday I went and saw your partner in Ripon and swore a declaration setting out the whole sordid story. It and a diary I've kept are hidden in your box of tin soldiers. If Sir Richard causes you two any trouble give it to one of his competitors in the newspaper business, they would love to put the boots to him"

They were almost at the church. They could see Robert and Mary arguing about something. Mary flailing her arms in the air and Robert trying to catch one of them.

Matthew turned to Lavinia "Will you tell them the story? There's something I have to do in the church"

"Yes, go!"

Matthew ran towards Robert and Mary. Robert had Mary's right arm and looked to be about to pull her into the church. "No! Wait!" Matthew yelled. They turned to him. Mary wrenched her arm free.

"Matthew this is outrageous!" snapped Robert.

"Sorry sir. But this is important. Lavinia has something to tell. Please listen to her". They both turned to her and Matthew took the opportunity to enter the church.

As the door opened the organist started playing The Wedding March and the congregation stood and turned towards the back expecting the bride. They saw Matthew glaring towards the altar.

Matthew started walking towards the front of the church. He could hear murmuring start and someone called out what was the meaning of this. He saw Bates sitting with Anna and he stopped beside them "Lend me your cane will you Bates?"

"With pleasure sir" and Bates handed him the cane.

Matthew held it like a sword and started slapping the end of it in his left hand. It had a nice weight to it. He continued up the aisle.

Sir Richard watched him stunned. In all his machinations he had never thought it would come to this. In his prime he might have been able to outfight Matthew but not now, and certainly not against a cane and that anger. He was going to get thrashed unless ... He pushed his best man towards Matthew. "Do something".

Tom left his place beside Sybil and pushed the best man aside "Stay out of this" he commanded.

Sir Richard called out to Matthew. "I will ruin her! No decent man will marry her!"

"You whoremonger!" Matthew yelled back. "Lavinia has told us the whole story and if you so much as publish one word against Mary or the rest of us we will have the whole story published! See where that gets you!"

"And no matter what" Matthew turned as he spoke so he faced the congregation "I will marry her!"

As soon as Matthew's back was turned Sir Richard took the opportunity to bolt out the side door behind the altar. Matthew made to follow him but Carson blocked his way.

"There's someone outside who's waiting for you." and Carson gave Matthew a small nudge towards the main door.

As Matthew walked down the aisle Violet started to clap, then Isobel, then Cora and then the whole of the bride's side of the church was applauding. As he passed Bates he gave him back the cane. "Thanks".

Outside the church Lavinia was just finishing her story when they heard the applause. "That's my cue to exit off stage." She looked at Mary with some pity "If you weren't so proud and stubborn and had deigned just a little to exercise a few womanly wiles on him you have had him a long time ago."

Matthew came out of the church and looked at them. None of them moved until Lavinia went up to him. She touched his cheek "My biggest regret is that I never bedded you. It would have been great." She smiled at him. "Take good care of her. And forgive her, everyone is young and stupid once." She kissed him on the cheek and started walking back towards Crawley House to get her bag.

Robert came up to him and put out his right hand to shake Matthew's hand. "Take the Rolls, I'll settle down things here".

Robert turned to Mary and smiled "It was a close run thing but this is for best. I love you." and he hugged her.

Matthew helped Mary into the Rolls and got in beside her.

"Hamilton, take us to Ripon" Matthew commanded.

Mary leaned forward and knocked on the glass. "No, take us to Downton Abbey."

Matthew grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

She turned to him "If I'm going to elope with you I'm going to change out of this damned wedding dress".

And then she kissed him.

THE END


End file.
